Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on Assemblyman Vito Lopez, a onetime Democratic powerbroker from Brooklyn, to resign in the wake of sordid sexual harassment allegations. If he fails to do so, Cuomo said, his colleagues should expel him from the chamber.

“The more facts that have come out in this matter, the uglier it has gotten,” Cuomo said after announcing a tribal compact. “I have three young daughters who would love to work in government, volunteer in government … whatever procedures they have need to be dramatically redone, because this can’t be allowed to happen again.”

The governor said the Assembly should adopt a policy of “zero tolerance.”

But Cuomo, a Democrat, stopped short of calling for action against Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Two reports released Wednesday detailed how Silver’s lawyers entered into a confidential settlement with two women who accused Lopez of sexual harassment in 2011 and never referred their claims to the Assembly Ethics Committee. One report, by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, detailed how Assembly lawyers decided the women filed no formal “complaint,” and therefore the matter could be settled without the bipartisan committee. The second report, by special prosecutor Dan Donovan, the Republican district attorney from Staten Island, said this action “encouraged” Lopez to offend again. Which he did.

“The reaction here should be sure and swift and unequivocal,” Cuomo continued. “Resign. If you don’t resign, we’ll expel because we will not allow that to occur in this chamber. Period.”

Cuomo was asked if he had any specific criticisms of how Silver, D-Manhattan, handled the matter.

“The way the Assembly handled it, yes,” Cuomo replied. “Is that the speaker or other people, I don’t know. … It was handled poorly and terribly.”

It’s not easy to expel a sitting member from the Legislature, but the state Senate in 2010 voted to oust Hiram Monserrate after he was convicted of misdemeanor harassment in connection with a domestic dispute.

About Capitol Confidential

Capitol Confidential gathers the best coverage of New York politics and puts it all together. Each section - Capitol, The State Worker, New York on the Potomac, and Voices - represents a unique facet of the political scene. The Capitol section features coverage from the Times Union Capitol bureau. The State Worker is dedicated to state worker issues. New York on the Potomac offers news of interest to New Yorkers from Washington. And Voices features the best of everything else, pointing you to columnists and bloggers from across the Web.